Invented by Blaise Pascal, La Pascaline was the first mechanical calculator which could add and subtract. Pascal started working on this project when he was only 19 years old. It used a set of eight gears which worked together to turn the next wheel. Each wheel represented a place value (ones, tens, hundreds, etc.). In 1649 Pascal was received a Royal Privilege (patent) that exclusively allowed him to make and sell calculating machines in France. La Pascaline was a failure, as it broke often, was slow, and Pascal was the only one who was able to fix it. Pascal later became famous in math and philosophy, and the computer language Pascal was named in his honor.
